One of the questions I received from a members of TAC was:
WHEN WILL I MAKE MONEY AT THIS, WHEN WILL THIS PAY OFF?
Wow. Absolutely. Right? When WILL this pay off? When am I going to book a job? When am I going to book regularly? When am I going to finally quit that Jay Oh Bee (Check out another TAC mentor DaJuan Johnson’s great article here). When are we going to finally lace up and run that marathon naked through the dollar bill forest?
Well, pause for a moment and ask yourself, what do I actually control in this process of “The Pay Off?” I can tell you it’s not booking the job. In the 50 national commercials I’ve booked, not once did I make the decision for the director to hire me.
The DECISION is not up to you, but the prep, the mindset, the joy, the WORK is. But sooner or later you’re going to have to leave the audition room, and then it’s out of your hands. The “pay off” is out of your hands, if you think the “pay off” is the job. And here is where we need to switch our understanding.
When WILL this pay off if we have no control over whether it pays off?
In the 101, we talk about the engine of our audition being the act of service, being present in the moment so we can ask, with a true intention, How Can I Help? I have found that service, this presence of mind to recognize what is needed now, is what helps me through not only the seven minutes of the audition, but the much, much longer “tough” times, when the lack of money, lack of work, the belief of scarcity is present in my life. Service helps take control over how I can get paid off in this moment now. And it’s not money, it’s not status, it’s service. And I found, the more I serve, the more I work, and next thing you know, I have a career. Ask this question in your audition room, in your life. How can I help? Ask it wildly. Ask it with a recklessness. Ask it now.
